|
Current Projects
Research department projects fall into the following categories:
Academic Achievement
Beating the Odds
This annual report is an important tool for monitoring progress in our nation’s urban school districts. Each year, we collect data on the performance of large urban districts on state reading and math assessments, reporting student achievement by grade, race/ethnicity, economic status, English language proficiency, and special needs status. We also track how districts are performing over time, their progress relative to their states, and whether there is any narrowing of racial and economic achievement gaps.
Report Release: March (Annually)
Succeeding with English Language Learners
Study Overview and Update
Twenty percent of the students served by the Council of the Great City Schools districts are English language learners (ELLs). These ELL students represent approximately thirty percent of the ELL students across the entire nation. Urban schools have been struggling with the challenges of teaching English language learners for decades. More recently, the accountability requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act have put urban districts in an even more difficult position, requiring them to produce English proficient students who can perform well on subject matter assessments on a consistent basis and within a rapid time frame. Though NCLB requirements allow for some flexibility, districts are still faced with a complex set of challenges, including:
• the length of time required for language development to occur, versus the timing of accountability benchmarks and adequate yearly progress;
• the influx of recent immigrant, non-English speaking students, who also tend to be low-income/high-need students;
• increasing numbers of adolescent new arrivals with limited English proficiency, as well as limited native language literacy;
• the presence of cultural differences concerning classroom behavior and engagement, relationships with schools and school personnel, and school-family interactions;
• increasing cultural, geographical, ethnic, and language diversity among ELL students;
• a shortage of teachers with sufficient training in teaching ELL students; and
• an inconsistent and limited body of reliable research regarding effective methods for teaching ELLs.
At the same time, there is a dearth of knowledge regarding how to best approach the myriad challenges associated with educating ELL students. In order to meet this need, the Council has launched a study of ELL practices in the Great City Schools. In particular, the study will examine progress among ELLs among the Council of the Great City Schools districts in order to ascertain the extent to which districts have been more or less successful at improving ELL student achievement, and use the experiences of these districts to shed light on potential strategies for helping improve ELL student performance throughout the Council membership.
The study is modeled in part after Foundations for Success, published by the Council in 2002. Foundations for Success explored promising practices among districts that had been successful at improving average student achievement and reducing racial achievement gaps, and used the experiences of these districts to develop a general framework for reform as well as several specific hypotheses regarding strategies for systematically improving student achievement. This study of ELL achievement in urban districts is similar in design, and is designed to produce similar guidance.
Update
As of January 2008, we have selected members and convened a first meeting of a research advisory committee, developed interview protocols and a framework for analysis, and completed district selection and recruitment. The four Council districts we will focus on in Succeeding with English Language Learners are:
• Dallas
• New York City
• St. Paul
• San Francisco
We have conducted first site visits in three districts—St. Paul, New York City, and San Francisco. We plan to complete the first round of site visits by Winter 2007/2008, and conduct our second round throughout the Spring and Summer of 2008, depending on the schedules and availability in the participating districts.
English language learners (ELLs) make up twenty percent of the students served by Council districts. In order to help address these challenges, the Council is launching a study of English language learner achievement in the Great City Schools, designed to ascertain which urban districts are succeeding with the ELL population, what policies and practices may have contributed to the success, and the degree to which these policies and practices are shared by successful districts.
Secondary School Reform
The American high school has recently emerged as a major focal point for education reform. While advances in technology have increased the economic importance of having a strong secondary education, students in high poverty, high minority urban high schools still face disproportionately high drop out rates and often leave the school system without the skills necessary to succeed in today’s economy. Even many students who arrive at high school with relatively high test scores struggle to succeed in high school and graduate with an education that prepares them for either college or the work place. The Council is involved in a variety of intensive efforts to respond to these issues and to provide substantive guidance to our members regarding how to address the major challenges that we are facing in this area.
Research Briefs
In order to be effective, our work on secondary school reform – and that of our member districts – must leverage the best available evidence from research and practice to create concrete guidance for reform. It is our desire not only to provide technical assistance through our strategic support teams, but also to make sure that district leadership is aware of what the research has to say about pressing and popular reform movements. In order to accomplish these goals, we are creating a series of research briefs. Each brief will review the existing research on the topic, describe the evidence base, and make a set of recommendations based on what the evidence supports and/or suggests. The topics of forthcoming briefs are:
-
-
Adolescent Literacy
-
Secondary Mathematics Instruction
-
Structure of the Comprehensive High School
-
Rigor, Expectations, and Preparation for College
Secondary School Survey
As part of its continuing effort to improve the knowledge base and provide guidance to member districts, Council staff is conducting an extensive survey of secondary school structure, policies, and practices. This survey will focus on the areas of Secondary School Organization, High School Transitions, Literacy and Mathematics, Structure/Structural Reforms/Comprehensive Reforms, and Professional Development.
Teacher Quality
Compared to any other measurable in-school educational resource, the quality and effectiveness of teachers is the most powerful determinant of a child’s educational success or failure. Yet maximizing the quality of the teaching force in our urban school districts, where effective teachers are needed the most, remains an ongoing challenge. Therefore, understanding the issues that affect teacher quality and exploring how to improve teacher recruitment and retention in our member districts is an important research priority for the Council.
Research Brief
The Council is preparing a research brief of policies and practices designed to increase the presence of effective teachers in urban schools and school districts serving poor and minority students. In particular, the research brief will focus on the need to increase the retention of experienced, effective teachers in urban districts, and the crucial role of high quality induction and mentoring supports in achieving this goal. This work is based in part on a background paper prepared at the request of the Ford Foundation summarizing the relevant research on the issue and making a set of recommendations regarding how they might make a productive investment in the area of teacher quality.
Survey
As part of a joint data collection effort with the Legislative Affairs department, the Research department has drafted a survey designed to gage the distribution of high quality teachers in urban districts and current district policies aimed at recruiting, retaining, and supporting high quality teachers.
Research Collaborations
IES Urban Education Task Force
The Institute for Education Sciences (IES), in consultation with the Council, has established an Urban Education Research Advisory Task Force, consisting of senior scholars in areas critical to urban education reform and practitioners with substantial experience in leadership positions within the Council’s districts. The Council Executive Director and Research Director are “ex officio” members of the task force, with the Executive Director serving as the chair of the committee. The committee will work with IES to establish a research agenda in urban education for IES that is both “rigorous” and “relevant” to the needs and challenges urban school districts face today, help IES design and implement projects, identify and support opportunities for collaboration between researchers and urban educators, and find new ways to advance the use of empirical evidence in urban school reform.
Senior Urban Education Research Fellowship
The U.S. Department of Education has awarded the Council of the Great City Schools more than $2.5 million to establish a Senior Fellowship in Urban Education. The goal of this program is to partner high caliber researchers with leaders in urban school districts in order to produce a coherent body of high quality, policy relevant research that addresses the primary challenges facing urban school districts today. This collaboration aims to better understand the problems in urban education and to further develop sustainable solutions based on scientific inquiry into what works to improve academic outcomes. There will be three $100,000 fellowships granted each year, from 2007 through 2009, following three rounds of competition Each round of research will generate three reports, which the Council will compile into a compendium and disseminate widely. At the end of the project, the Council will create a report synthesizing key lessons for urban districts.
|
